Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a graphic pattern inputting apparatus which is capable of inputting a desired graphic pattern or characters by moving an inputting tool by hand.
Keyboards or joysticks are used for the purpose of inputting graphic patterns and/or alphanumeric letters and for purpose of displaying such patterns on cathode-ray tubes or sheets of paper with X-Y plotters and other display apparatuses. For instance, a keybutton which is swingable in four directions, that is, above, below, left and right is used to input graphic patterns. The keybutton is easy to operate in inputting vertical or horizontal straight lines, but the keybutton is difficult to handle in inputting slant lines or curves. Particularly in case of inputting freedrawings the keybutton must be very often switched in direction when the chasing line extends to trace a given freedrawing. The frequent switching is inconvenient, and the drawing thus drawn often lacks definition. In contrast to the keybutton, a joystick is easy to draw slant lines or curves. The joystick is designed to be handled with a single hand rather than fingers, and therefore the joystick can not draw as smooth lines as a finger-operating tool could. A tablet or mouse is convenient for freedrawing, but is difficult to handle in drawing straight lines. Also, this tool has a poor definition.
As for the inputting operation with swingable keybuttons, an operator feels something strange because of disagreement between the direction in which a keybutton is moved and the direction in which a bright spot moves to draw a line on a CRT. The swingable keybutton and other input tools are insensitive to the strength of a force with which a hand performs inputting operation as required because these instruments are designed to detect only the two actions, that is, touching "on" and touching "off". Stated otherwise, the operator's intention or mind work cannot reflect on the resultant action in a smooth and natural way, and in this connection there is a great problem from the angle of human engineering.
As for the operation of inputting alphanumeric letters of Japanese "kana" or "hiragana", it suffices that a keybutton slotted to a desired letter is pushed, but if an operator wants to select a desired typeface among different ones, he must perform extra operations for the purpose. As for he must perform extra operations for the purpose. As for inputting "kanji" (Chinese characters) an operator must select and input alphabetical letters or "kana" to phonetically express a desired "kanji", and then he must perform extra operations for converting the phonetic expression to the desired "kanji".